Resurrecting Timeless Fashion: A Met Gala 2024 Recap
This year’s Met Gala, hosted on Monday, May 7, 2024, celebrated the “Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion” exhibit by the Costume Institute. The exhibit will feature clothing garments as old as 400 years old that can’t be worn (or even touched) again. The articles will come alive with the help of tech activations that ignite all the senses.
Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, spoke to Nightline for the IMPACT x Nightline: Inside the Met Gala episode and said, “The inspiration was born out of the frustration that when a garment comes into The Met’s collection, it can no longer be worn or smelled, or touched. And as a curator, you’re always thinking of ways to reawaken the garments, reawaken parts of the collection. So when you go through the show, you can hear a garment, you can smell a garment; we’ve created models you can touch.”
Celebrities, stylists, and designers were tasked with creating looks under the theme of “The Garden of Time”, based on J.G. Ballard’s short story of the same name. I enjoyed the YouTube live stream of the “green” or “mossy” carpet show at home with a homemade pizza and chocolate chip cookies. For two and a half hours, I saw looks that wowed, others that were just ok, and a few that were simply not it.
My favorite looks of the night were Zendaya’s first look of custom Maison Margiela designed by John Galliano; Tyla’s sand dress, designed by Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, which needed handlers to carry her up the stairs; Colman Domingo in Willy Chavarria, who paid homage to the late Andre Leon Talley and the late Chadwick Boseman; Usher in a black studded Alexander McQueen suit embellished with red roses; Mona Patel wearing Iris Van Harpen featuring mechanical moving butterflies; Taylor Russell channeling a tree in a Loewe dress featuring a wooden corset; and Demi Moore wearing a dress made of wallpaper by Harris Reed.
An unexpected, but necessary, look came from Wisdom Kaye. If you don’t know who he is, you’ll want to. Over the years, I’ve never seen a more creative menswear expert. He stepped out in a stunning red suit, coat, and hat from the most recent Robert Wun haute couture collection. Sierra Nicole said it best, “From day 1, he positioned himself as an EXPERT… not an “influencer”! He created videos daily, constantly and consistently, showing up with VALUE-BASED content. He showcased his expertise by putting together unique outfits. He involved his community by creating videos based on their comments and suggestions.” Do yourself a favor and follow him.
Surprisingly, some Met Gala veterans opted out of the event this year. But that didn’t stop people from creating AI images faking their attendance and fooling innocent social media scrollers, myself included. I’m not gonna lie, I thought the Lady Gaga one was real. Check out the images on Fashion Bomb Daily.
See every (real) look from fashion’s biggest night, thanks to Vogue, and choose your favorite ones.
It’s been a full week of Met Gala content, and I’m officially exhausted. But the fun’s not over yet. As a fashion exhibit museum girlie, I’m excited to attend the Vogue Club Night at the Museum event this coming Tuesday to see the pieces for myself. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take any photos, but I’ll do my best to recap the event next week.
The exhibit runs until September 2, 2024, but if you can’t see the pieces in person, check out the preview on WWD.
Welcome to Weekly Staples! A brief overview of my favorite fashion industry articles from the week related to marketing, retail trends, and events.
Would you think to purchase luxury items from Walmart? Luosophy, a luxury reseller that purchased stock from Matches, has been uploading products to the budget-friendly website. You can now purchase The Row and Jacquemus on the site. All the Rick Owens and Ann Demeulemeester pieces are “out of stock”. Globaldata analyst Neil Saunders says that “luxury inventory on Walmart signals two things… first, the market for luxury is slowing down and there is excess that needs to be sold. And second, luxury brands are not in full control of where their product is sold”. (Vogue Business)
Cassey Ho, the founder of Blogilates and Popflex, posted an eerie video calling out a dupe of her Pirouette Skort featuring an AI-generated face. She has been in contact with both Amazon and TikTok to flag and remove the content that links to counterfeits of her designs. Meanwhile, TikTok announced on Thursday, May 9, 2024, that the company would “adopt ‘Content Credentials’, a digital watermark that denotes how images were created and edited”. (Modern Retail and Business of Fashion)
As the warmer weather approaches (finally!), “skin-care brand EltaMD has expanded its UV Clear and UV Daily collections to include Deep Tint iterations of the best-selling products”. Currently only sold at “medspas, plastic surgeons’ offices, and dermatologist offices and on EltaMD’s e-commerce site”, the brand will launch online with retail partners on Monday, May 13, 2024. (Glossy)
Check out more interesting stories from the week:
Nike Finally Re-Released Forrest Gump’s Iconic Cortez Sneakers via GQ Magazine
Glossy Pop Newsletter: What’s actually happening in denim? via Glossy
Fixing Retail’s Sales Floor to C-Suite Pipeline via Business of Fashion
How Beis looks to bring ‘personality’ to its events via Modern Retail
How Press Tours Became Hollywood’s Fiercest Fashion Battleground via GQ Magazine
Conscious Content
Esprit’s Scott Lux states in his opinion, “digital [retail] is almost more expensive now that physical [retail]” due to “the cost of shipping… the environmental consequence of it… the cost of media, all the technology you need to run your digital ecosystem, all the partners are expensive, talent and staff…” Listen to the full episode on The Glossy Podcast.
Patagonia premiered its latest film, “Shitthropocene”, on YouTube and prompted some interesting feedback from commenters. In “Why Some Consumers Find Sustainable Marketing So Annoying”, Cathaleen Chen at Business of Fashion notes that “people are put off by messaging from fashion companies that point fingers at other fashion companies”. Yes, overconsumption is bad. Yes, we should make more sustainable decisions with our dollars. But talking down to the audience to get the point across isn’t necessary. I made it to “the evolution of man” (about six minutes in) before turning it off.
Retailers have been implementing new return policies lately due to additional costs to brands like shipping and postage costing retailers up to 40% to re-shelf items. Policies may include “shrinking return windows, limiting the types of items that can be returned, and even charging for returns”. The Retail Equation has collected consumer data whenever customers return items to retailers for years. Many consumers have no idea their information is being stored (and scored) which can cause their returns to be flagged as fraudulent, even if they’re returning within the boundaries of store policies. Shoppers may receive a warning for returning future items or even get banned from returning items to retailers. (CNBC on YouTube)
Retail Rundown
After filing bankruptcy for the third time, Rue21 “plans to close all its stores and sell its intellectual property”. This will affect Washington store locations at The Outlet Collection in Auburn and South Hill Mall in Puyallup. (Puget Sound Business Journal)
In more positive news, Uniqlo will open two new stores, one 9,000 SF space at the Tacoma Mall (opened on May 10, 2024) and the other at the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood on May 17, 2024. Additionally, travel luggage brand Tom Bihn will open a new 1,450 SF flagship store at Bellevue Square this summer. (Puget Sound Business Journal)
The Scene
Wednesday, May 15th: Fashion District NW & SIFF present Fashion Film Screening of High & Low - John Galliano & Afterparty at AMC Theater at Pacific Place Seattle
Saturday, May 18th: Nordstrom Beauty Trend Show at Nordstrom Downtown Seattle
